Chicago Cubs: Ranking the top five wins of the 2018 season

Everyone has their personal favorite games at the end of each season, but these five Chicago Cubs victories stand out in my mind heading into a new campaign.

In the grand scheme of it all, 2018 was a great season for the Chicago Cubs. Ninety-five wins and a playoff berth for the fourth consecutive year highlighted yet another year filled with excitement and drama. With all of the uncertainty and anxiety during this current offseason, I thought it would be great to rank my top five games from the 2018 regular season.

Chicago Cubs – #5. Cole Hamels Goes the Distance 

8/23/2018: Cubs 7 – Reds 1

The Chicago Cubs acquired left-hander Cole Hamels at the trade deadline to help fix the mistakes made in signing Tyler Chatwood and Yu Darvish. It wasn’t a flashy move at the time by any means, but it’s the most the Cubs could do, and there was a lot of potential.

Hamels had gotten off to a great start in Chicago, but when he took the hill against Cincinnati on Aug. 23, the Cubs knew they had made a great move. The Reds got off to an early lead, as they scored in the first to make it 1-0. However, the Cubs quickly answered in the bottom of the first as Rizzo nailed a two-run homer.

After this, it was cruise control.

Baez added a 481-foot solo shot in the third to make it 3-1. The Cubs were able to add four more runs throughout the course of the game to help cushion their new savior in Hamels. Cole was able to go the distance and get the Cubs a 7-1 victory. He finished with a line of nine innings pitched, eight hits, one earned, two walks and 7 K’s.

Hamels improved his record in Chicago to 4-0 with an ERA of 0.79. This win propelled the Cubs to complete a four-game sweep of the Reds, avenging the previous four-game sweep the Reds had completed earlier in the year. A win that showed Cubs fans they had a starter to round out the rotation and one that they could count on down the stretch. An all-around feel-good game in Chicago that comes in at #5 on my list.